Groupon takes on Seamless with food delivery

That’s because Groupon announced Thursday that it’s kicked off the ability for consumers to order food directly from the service’s app and website, which makes it a direct competitor to food delivery sites, according to Consumerist.

The site, which is known for helping consumers save on deals to restaurants and events, touts helping users save 10% on orders through the new service.

But not so fast: The area of service is limited so far. Groupon To Go, as it’s being dubbed, launched in Chicago Thursday, with about 500 restaurants.

Groupon has plans to expand the service’s areas, including Austin and Boston in the fall. There are, of course, plans to go national down the road, too.

Restaurants that are available through Groupon to Go at launch include Quiznos, Popeyes, Subway, and Papa Johns.

Groupon acquired food delivery service OrderUp earlier in July to help launch the new feature, according to TechCrunch.

It just got way easier to order Subway

Subway is the latest – and reportedly largest – restaurant to embrace mobile. The sandwich-making chain announced that it now allows users to order their very own delicatessen creations from their smartphones.

Subway, which has 27,000 stores across the U.S., allows consumers to make the order and then pick up the food, Buzzfeed reported. People can also now make orders via their desktops on the Subway website.

TechCrunch reported that the ability to order online was soft launched in the fall, although now it’s being promoted by the chain on a mass scale. In order to process the payments, it’s teamed up with a company that PayPal acquired.

Per the article:

Subway had actually quietly launched a mobile payment solution in its app last fall, but only began discussing the details more publicly this May as it needed time to train staff and work out the kinks. It still hasn’t made a huge, splashy public debut, however – though that will change later this year as Subway begins to advertise its mobile ordering and payments app for iOS and Android.

“So bringing together the convenience of what PayPal will enable us to further do with our mobile app is very much in sync with what we’re trying to do – which is make it as simple as possible and as convenient for customers to buy sandwiches from us,” he continued.

This peanut executive may get life in prison

Stewart Parnell, 61, the former owner of Peanut Corporation of America, could find himself in prison for life. That’s because his company was responsible for a salmonella outbreak that claimed the lives of nine people from 2008 to 2009 and caused hundreds more to fall ill.

This week, prosecutors recommended that he get a life sentence. In 2014, a federal jury found him guilty of shipping peanut butter spoiled with salmonella – knowingly, according to Consumerist.

Prosecutors filed a brief that calculates Parnell could be eligible for a life sentence due to sentencing guidelines from the case. Lawyers for Parnell, of course, are questioning that recommendation. But Dr. Ian Williams, who heads the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch at the Centers for Disease Control, explained that 714 illnesses are related to the outbreak, which may have led to “as many as 20,000 ill people across the United States,” per Consumerist.

Parnell’s attorney called the life sentence recommendation “truly absurd” in a statement to the Associated Press. “We hope the judge will see that Stewart Parnell never meant to hurt anyone. He ate the peanut butter himself. He fed it to his children and to his grandchildren.”

You can now order ice cream from Uber again

#UberIceCream is back. That is, if you’re hankering for some ice cream on this hot summer day and you want it delivered Uber-style, you’re in luck. Even better: If you have a Capital One account, you get a cone on them on Friday.

“Consider this an invitation to chill out. Your office probably doesn’t have a slip n’ slide, and running through the sprinklers likely won’t go over well with your boss. Don’t sweat it — you can still feel like a kid again by ordering ice cream on demand with #UberIceCream,” according to Uber in a blog post.

This is the fourth year in a row that Uber has offered the confections via its ride-sharing service. “This is a global promotion with local flavor, and it’s as simple as ever: Tap a button, and get a brain freeze in hundreds of cities around the world,” the post continues.

From Uber:

Open the Uber app on Friday, July 24, between 11am and 5pm

Set your location and request ICE CREAM

If connected, order away and Ice Cream will be delivered curbside in minutes

And it’s as easy as that.

In other Uber news, the app recently won its fight in New York City against Mayor Bill de Blasio over a proposed cap to the number of Uber cars made available to the public.

Nathan’s demands a hot dog emoji

It’s National Hot Dog Day, as part of National Hot Dog Month, and Nathan’s is taking the time to demand none other than a hot dog emoji. Naturally.

The Coney Island-hot dog maker went so far as to tweet its consternation over the lack of an icon on the popular texting feature. “The world cannot live on 🍔 and 🍕 and 🍟 alone. Give us #HotDogEmoji. Share to show your support!”

The timing, of course, is impeccable with the national holiday on Thursday. Fun fact: “In 2014, consumers spent more than $2.5 billion on hot dogs in U.S. supermarkets,” according to the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.

McDonald’s franchise owners: The turnaround isn’t working

Although McDonald’s is trying to shake off years of underwhelming results and win back customers with new menu items, franchise owners still aren’t happy.

A recent survey of 29 respondents who run 208 McDonald’s MCD restaurants found that the owners are not impressed with the company’s turnaround efforts, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In fact, it’s the worst six-month outlook for the U.S. business in the 12 years that analyst Mark Kalinowski has conducted the poll of franchisees, the Journal said. The latest round of responses are even worse than the previous low seen in April, the report said.

The franchisees predict a 2.3% decline in June U.S. same-store sales, the report said, noting that it’s far below analysts’ expectations of a 0.3% decline. They say the changes recently implemented by McDonald’s management have not yet born fruit.

Some McDonald’s franchisees said years of investments for store remodeling and new equipment have left them with debt and unable to expand or make further investments to boost their businesses, the paper reported. And one person surveyed said some store operators are nearing the end of their 20-year franchise agreement and may not be able to enter into a new one if they fall below the required financial thresholds.

“Everyone is worried that there are no longer any operators that can buy their stores,” the franchisee stated in the survey. “I suspect there will be a large number of fire sales with the end result that everyone’s equity will go down.”

Easterbrook acknowledged in a video and press release that the company has been bogged down by a cumbersome structure and too much bureaucracy, making it slow to adapt to big changes like customers gravitating to what they perceive as healthier fare. It also has been grappling with a poor perception of its food quality and customer service.

“Approximately 3,100 franchisees own and operate McDonald’s restaurants across the U.S. Less than 1% of them were surveyed for this report,” a McDonald’s spokeswoman told the newspaper. “We value the feedback from our franchisees and have a solid working relationship with them.”

Domino’s growth driven by digital orders

Domino’s is quickly becoming the digital darling among pizza joints. In fact, the company, which reported strong second quarter earnings, said that more than half of its orders are made through digital means.

The pizza-maker saw sales in U.S. stores rise 12.5% and international stores were up 6.7%, according to USA Today.

It is digital offerings where the bulk of sales are now made include its website and mobile, including being able to order pizza via texting and tweeting. In May, the fast food brand began allowing customers to tweet to order food.

“It was simply another great quarter,” said CEO J. Patrick Doyle in a statement. “Our franchisees and corporate team members are executing at a very high level, and our digital initiatives continue to help attract more customers around the world. We’re in a great place as a brand.”

Domino’s DPZ has also savored a simplified menu in recent years, while its competition has started selling some particularly wacky offerings, such as a hot dog pizza offered recently by Pizza Hut YUM.

A Papa John’s franchise owner faces jail time and $500,000 in back pay

A New York Papa John’s franchise owner and his company are in big, big trouble. The franchise owner, Abdul Jamil Khokhar, has been accused by New York prosecutors over not paying employees minimum wage and overtime.

He’s facing backpay of $500,000 along with the potential for jail time as well. Meanwhile, BMY Foods, which owns nine Papa John’s franchises in the Bronx with Khokhar, was charged Wednesday by the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the U.S. Department of Labor. Over 300 current and former employees have been impacted by the lack of proper wages paid to them, Consumerist reported.

“My office will not hesitate to criminally prosecute any employer who underpays workers and then tries to cover it up by creating fake names and filing fraudulent tax returns,” said Attorney General Schneiderman in a statement. “We will continue to be relentless in pursuing the widespread labor law violations, large and small, which we have found in the fast food industry. And I call on franchisors to stand up and stop the widespread lawlessness plaguing your businesses and harming your hardworking employees.”

“This judgment should be a wake-up call for all employers who think they can break the law, not pay their workers, cover it up and get away with it,” according to David Weil, the administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, in a statement.

This isn’t even the first time this year that Papa Johns’s franchise owners have found themselves in trouble. In February and March, the Attorney General charged two other franchisees for violating wage laws.

Meet the billionaire saving Blue Bell ice cream from a meltdown

Blue Bell Creameries, the Texas-based ice cream maker that temporarily shut down due to a deadly listeria contamination, is getting some help thanks to a billionaire investor.

Sid Bass, a Texas investor worth an estimated $1.7 billion, has become an investor and partner with Blue Bell, which has been closed since April and hasn’t set a date for when it will begin selling ice cream once again.

“We are pleased Sid Bass has made a significant investment with our company. The additional capital will ensure the successful return of our ice cream to the market and our loyal customers,” said Paul Kruse, Blue Bell CEO and president, in a statement.

Bass amassed his wealth through his family’s business that was started by his great-uncle, Sid Richardson, and his father, Perry Richardson Bass. He has been active in the family oil and gas and carbon black businesses, as well as managed long-term investments, most notably a large holding in the Walt Disney Company DIS.

The scope of Bass’ Blue Bell investment wasn’t released. Blue Bell, a leading ice cream brand in the southern U.S., has been family owned for 108 years and doesn’t release financial data.

As of last week, Blue Bell said it would start test production of ice cream at its Alabama plant. It will hold the production for safety testing, and if all goes according to plan during the trial period, the company hopes to being building inventory for its return to the market.

The American Heart Association has taken a new tack to educate the public about cardiovascular health — and it has turned to comedian Nick Offerman for help.

The campaign, which is in partnership with the website Funny or Die, reveals the ‘natural’ source of kids’ school lunches these days: “French fries are practically salad, which is why I like mine with ranch,” said Offerman at one point in the video.

Big brands and startups have been testing the native advertising waters for a while now. These ads — which match the form and function of the website where it appears — blend into other content on targeted sites, making it more likely that viewers or readers will click on them. (There’s certainly been some backlash on the medium in the journalism world.) It’s no surprise that public-health advocates are also turning to native ads to get their messages across.